[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World whiteboard.]

How to Be a Better Man: 12 Areas of Self-Improvement

As a man struggling to live a good life, you know you can’t stay stagnant.

And even if you’ve lost control of certain areas of your life, you know you’ve got to change.

So no matter how hard it might be, no matter how long it takes, you’ve got to get back up if you fall down—even if you have to start all over again from scratch, sometimes that’s what it takes.

So here are 12 areas directly from Scripture that real men are committed to overcoming until the day they die.

Bible Verses About How to Overcome Lust

1. Real men are committed to overcoming lust with faithfulness.

By means of a harlot [or the lust of women] a man is reduced to a crust of bread… Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?... Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so destroys his own soul (Proverbs 6:25–29, 32).

And:

Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27–30).

So, instead we must:

Flee… youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22).

Flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18).

And:

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love (Proverbs 5:18–19).

Bible Verses About Laziness

2. Real men are committed to overcoming laziness with diligence.

Because of laziness the building decays, and through idleness of hands the house leaks (Ecclesiastes 10:18).

The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich (Proverbs 13:4).

And:

The hand of the diligent will rule (Proverbs 12:24).

Because “whatever you do, [you] do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Colossians 3:23).

Bible Verses About Lying

3. Real men are committed to overcoming falsehood with truth.

Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal truthfully are His delight (Proverbs 12:22).

Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor” (Ephesians 4:25).

Because “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Bible Verses About Humility

4. Real men are committed to overcoming pride with humility.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 29:23).

And:

A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor (Proverbs 11:2).

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life (Proverbs 22:4).

Bible Verses About Anger

5. Real men are committed to overcoming strife with peace.

Foolish and ignorant disputes… generate strife (2 Timothy 2:23).

And:

Any fool can start a quarrel (Proverbs 20:3).

But:

It is honorable for a man to stop striving (Proverbs 20:3).

Therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts (Proverbs 17:14).

So:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men (Romans 12:18).

Bible Verses About Forgiveness

6. Real men are committed to overcoming bitterness with forgiveness.

Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled (Hebrews 12:15).

So:

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice (Ephesians 4:31).

And instead:

Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do (Colossians 3:12–13).

Bible Verses About Selfishness

7. Real men are committed to overcoming selfishness with love.

Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there (James 3:16).

But:

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:3–4).

Bible Verses About Contentment

8. Real men are committed to overcoming greed with contentment.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

Bible Verses About Hope

9. Real men are committed to overcoming despair with hope.

Because “hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12) and “who can bear a broken spirit?” (Proverbs 18:14).

But with Christ as our Rock:

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).

Because we have:

...fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil (Hebrews 6:18-19).

Bible Verses About Fear

10. Real men are committed to overcoming fear with courage.

The fear of man brings a snare (Proverbs 29:25).

And the “cowardly… shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

And we see Peter, before his conversion, as he walked on water, and when:

He saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid (Matthew 14:30).

So he began to sink. But we’re admonished:

Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

Bible Verses About Conviction

11. Real men are committed to overcoming compromise with conviction.

Do you not know that friendship with the world [in particular, the ways of the world] is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).

But:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

Because as Paul said to the evangelist Timothy:

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).

Bible Verses About Sin and Repentance

12. Real men are committed to overcoming sin with repentance.

Because:

Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear (Isaiah 59:2).

But:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

You Can Do It—With God’s Help

Before we close, listen to what Paul said while He was in prison.

I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind (Philippians 3:13-15).

So when you fall down, get back up. Trust in God and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

And know “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

If you enjoyed this video, watch this next video about how to pray.